6The Daily Tar HeelMonday January 24. 983 ELECTION aih Star Hinl A Past student campaigns reflect national trends CAMPUS 90th year of editorial freedom JOHN DRESCHER. Editor ANN PETERS, Managing Editor KEN MlNGIS, Associate Editor Rachel Perry. Unwmity Editor Lucy Hood, cay Edit JIM State and National Editor S.L. Price, Sports Editor Laura Suhrt. n Edit - GEIAREH ASAYESH. Contributions Editor Linda Robertson. Associate Editor ELAINE MCCLATCHEY. Projects Editor TERESA CURRY. Features Editor Jeff Grove, Am Editor Jane Calloway, weekend Editor AL STEELE. Photography Editor Who is? your CGC rep? The Daily Tat Heel Assistant Managing Editors: Alison Davis, Dean Foust and Jeff Hiday Assistant News Editor Belinda Rollins . Editorial Assistants: Alan Chappie and Lelia Dunbar News Desk: Pete Felkner, Bob Kimpleton, Rita Kostecke, Karen Koutsky, Melissa Moore, Donna Pipes, Lori Schantz, John Tonkinson, Kari Trumbull, and Mickey Weaver News: Cheryl Anderson, Scott Bolejack, Keith Bradsher, Joseph Berryhill, Hope Buf fington, , Stacia Clawson, Paul Cocke, Tom Cordon, John Conway, Ashley Dimmette, Charlie EUmakcr, Pete Felkner, Bonnie Foust, SherrI Goodson, Steve Griffin, Ivy Hillard, Lucy Holman, Charlotte Holmes, Dane Huffman, Bob Kimpleton, Kim Kleman, Rita Kostecke, Paula Leonard, Lisbeth Levine, Stuart Long, Christine Manuel, Kyle Marshall, Gary Meek, Karen Moore, Melissa Moore, Kim Morrison, Rosemary Osborn, Heidi Owen, David Poole, Pamela Pressley, Lisa Pullen, Scott Ralls, Sarah Raper, Mike O'Reilly, Lori Schantz, Kelly Simmons, Jeff Slagel, Susan Snipes, Don Solomon, Mark Stinneford, Susan Sullivan, Keith Taylor, Lynda Thompson, Evan Trulove, Lea Watson, Mickey Weaver, Scott Wharton and Jim Yardley. Lynn Earley, assistant state and national editor and Liz Lucas, assistant University editor. Sports: Jackie Blackburn, Michael DeSisti, Jamie Francis, and Kurt Rosenberg, assistant sports editors. Frank Abbott, R.L. Bynum, Richard Craver, Paul Gardner, Brian Haneyi Frank Kennedy, Keith Lee, Draggan Mihalovich, Linda Nixon, Kathy Norcross, Robyn Norwood, Michael Persinger, John Pietri, Lew Price, Eddie Wooten and Tracy Young. Features: Shelley Block, Karen Fisher', Cindy Haga, Karen Haywood, Kathy Hopper, Belinda Rollins, Lynsley Rollins, Debbi Sykes, Mike Truell, Randy Walker, Clinton Weaver, and Edith Wooten. Arts: Frank Bruni, assistant arts editor; Ashley Blackwelder, Steve Carr, Jim Clardy, Todd Davis, David McHugh, Jo Ellen Meekins, Mont Rogers, Karen Rosen, David Schmidt, Gigi Sonner and D.F. Wilson. Graphic Arts: Matt Cooper, Nick Demos, Danny Harrell, Janice Murphy, Vince Steele, Suzanne Turner, Robin Williams and Denise Whalen artists; Charles Ledford, Jeff Neuville, Zane Saunders and Scott Sharpe photographers. Business: Rejeanne V. Caron, business manager; Linda A. Cooper, secretaryreceptionist; Lisa Morrell and Anne Sink, bookkeepers; Dawn Welch, circulationdistribution manager; Julie Jones and Angie Wolfe, classifieds. Advertising: Paula Brewer, advertising manager; Mike Tabor, advertising coordinator; Dee Dee Butler, Sharon Duckworth, Keith Lee, Terry Lee, Jeff McElhaney, Doug Robinson, Deana Setzer and Maria Zablock ad representatives. Composition: Frank Porter Graham Composition Division, UNC-CH Printing Department. Printing: Hinton Press, Inc., of Mebanc. By SCOTT BOLEJACK The long-running saga of "As the Thrill Turns (also titled, "All My Council Members") appears to have reached its conclusion: It indeed looks as if there will be a Chapel Thrill 83, that is, unless the Campus Governing Council steals the student funds, elopes with the bands and moves to Pine Valley or Port Charles. And to tell you the truth, it pro bably wouldn't surprise soap opera addicts, uh, we mean CGC observers, if the CGC did that or something equally flabbergasting. Our characters started the lengthy, though not popular, drama late last November and have since provided their viewing audience with enough melodrama and poor representation to last a lifetime. See spring concert chairperson Ben Lee catch spring fever and have a passionate affair with the lovely Student Government Spring Concert. See the dastardly Finance Committee ruthlessly end the romance. See the Knight in Shining Armor, i.e. Student Body President Michael P. Vandenbergh, come to the rescue of the poor maiden. See the student body rally to her cause. See the council members realize their insensitive, cold conduct and revive the lady. Oh, what drama. In real-life terms, the handling of the 1983 Student Government Spring Concert has not been one of the CGC's shining moments. In probably its most important decision of the year, the council bungled every attempt to give some serious, honest debate to the issue in which their constituents were most interested. The spring concert was funded by the CGC only be cause of some nifty political footwork by the student body president. To unravel the tragedy, it's necessary to go back to the fall semester. In late November, the Finance Committee adopted an I-don't-give-a-damn-about-you attitude toward their constituents and voted down funding a spring concert. "Even if every person in my district supported this, I couldn't vote for it because I dont think it's going to make money, said Finance Committee member Dan Bryson. And you thought they were called representatives. Chapel Thrill '82, by the way, made $27,000. Next, the CGC could not even discuss a bill asking the Finance Com mittee to reconsider its earlier decision because more than one-third of the CGC voted against any discussion. So the most important issue of the year went undiscussed by the campus organization that is supposed to discuss issues. The meaningful debate including just plain ol students never occurred. And CGC members can't understand why their con stituents get mad at them. At this point the concert was revived by a petition calling for a referen dum on the concert that would have overruled the CGC. Enough signatures were collected, but a funny thing happened on the way to the referendum...; , , . . It never happened. Under threat of a referendum, the CGC Finance Committee caved in quickly, which tells one a little about the political fortitude of Finance Committee members. It also tells about their respect for their own constitution, which says nothing about cancelling referen dums. If the full CGC voted for funding the conceit (which also would give it more control over the concert's fate), the student referendum would be canceled by Vandenbergh, even though he lacked the constitu tional ability to do so. The Comedy of Errors continued. The CGC voted the approval of funds and Vandenbergh canceled the referendum. The latest twist on this strange but true tale is that CGC member Phil Painter may challenge Vandenbergh's cancellation of the referendum. It does appear, however, that there will be a spring concert. The lesson to be learned from all this (there's always a lesson to be learned in soap operas) concerns the competence of your elected CGC representative. For most of the year the CGC sits around and talks about issues that may not interest many students. But when the CGC does reach an important issue, like a spring concert, students suddenly realize the fate of their activities are left to a small group of students that may be out of touch with the desires of their constituents. Do you feel your CGC representative represented your district well on the Chapel Thrill issue? Do you know who your CGC representative is? Now, election time, it is even more important to realize that the CGC will continue to function poorly and with disregard to its constituents until there is more student participation in the decision-making process. It is generally accepted that the mood of a nation is best expressed by the results of its elections. Even at UNC, where students seldom fit any one mold, campus elections tend to reflect the trend of the nation as a whole. From Daily Tar Heel editor to student body president to campus elections in general, University students have echoed the conservatism of the 1920s, the war fervor of the 1940s and the anti-Vietnam sentiment of the 1960s. But students have not always followed the trends and have often voted opposite the national mood. In 1928, when Americans were still doing the Charleston and the sun had not yet set on Wall Street, students weren't concerned with issues and cared more about mud surrounding the polling sites than they did about electing an editor. In fact, for perhaps the first time in University history, the candidate for DTH editor ran unopposed. Walter Spearman, who was later to become a journalism pro fessor at the University, encountered no opposition in his bid for editor and succeeded to the position without ever having his name placed on a ballot. The general complacency of the student body often was reflected in the campus election as a whole. In 1932, before the full effects of the Great Depression were re alized, 26 out of 29 elected positions were filled without opposition. As America moved from the Great Depression to World War H, UNC students got caught up in the war fervor that was sweeping across America. A naval training program was brought to the University and many students enlisted. As students headed overseas, campus organizations saw their numbers dwindle drastically and special electipns were called to replenish the ranks. Quipped one student a few years later, "Back then it seemed as if we were having elections every three months." One such special election saw the University break the long-standing tradition of "males only" in campus politics. Twenty years before women started burning their bras and 30 years before the Equal Rights Amendment became an issue, a woman by the name of Katherine Hill was elected editor of the war-mandated weekly Tar Heel. Another woman, by the name of Glen Harden, tri umphed in the conservative 1950s when she was elected DTH editor. Harden, to make sure everyone knew she was a woman, changed the letters format from "To the editor" to "Madam editor." ' . The victories of Hill and Harden may seem unusual given the conservative tone of the '40s and '50s, but what is just as unusual is the fact that the turbulent and more liberal '60s produced neither a female nor a black editor. It was not until the Nixon years of the early 1970s that another woman was elected editor of the DTH. Susan Miller overcame stiff competition from her male counter part to become only the University's third female editor. The conservative atmosphere of the 1950s may have suffered a mild setback with Harden' s election as editor, but the campus, as well as the nation, felt the effects of the disease that was McCarthyism. In 1955, Charles Kuralt, presently of CBS News, was editor of the DTH. At the time, the paper was under in vestigation by the Student Legislature on charges that its circulation was mismanaged and that its liberal editorial voice was not representative of the University community. One legislative member even went so far as to say that the DTH was "a second Daily Worker," a prominent communist publication. Kuralt denied the charges, re ceived support from several administrators and eventually the legislative member withdrew his remarks. The office of student body president, like that of the DTH editor, often has followed national trends, but has, on occasion, strayed from the norm. In the 1932 election, when 26 candidates were unop posed, the office of student body president experienced one of its most hotly contested races ever. Haywood Weeks, an independent candidate edged out All-Campus Party hopeful Hamilton Hobgood 789 to 751 in what one -kM ifj: K "tt S-fP 4 cV:-:;::::;:;:::':-:'S;:;:;:;:;:-:' ! ssw i V J"W v f 1 mm u -rf . , V v . . X- v S .:: V.VX -.-TV.- X i'ty'A' 'X 1 V-r - J .1,: v : : v ; x i s I I ! Student voters go to the polls in mid '40s student called the "biggest upset in the political history of the University." In 1943, as thousands of young men left for Europe and the Pacific, Student Body President John Robinson resigned his post to go to war as did Vice President Frank Alspaugh. In the 1960s, the office of student body president reflected much of the student unrest triggered by dis satisfaction with American society and fueled by the na tion's involvement in the Vietnam war. In 1967-1968 Student Body President Bob Travis led an activist student body against conservative measures in stituted by both the General Assembly and the University. In 1968, Travis filed suit asking a federal court to enjoin the University from participating in North Carolina's 5-year-old speaker ban law, which prohibited Com munists and suspected Communists from speaking on N.C. college campuses. The federal court eventually overturned the speaker ban. Also in '68, the University passed legislation concerning the use of illicit drugs on campus, legislation which stur dent government, under Travis, initially approved. But Travis withdrew his support of the measure when he realized that campus administrators were more in terested in punishing drug users than rehabilitating them. The full student government then passed a bill withdraw ing its support of the University legislation. But while the student population of the 1960s was con cerned about student rights, they were less than en thusiastic over the rights of women and blacks. No woman has ever been elected student body presideht and it wasn't until 1972 that a black first ran for student body president and won. Richard Epps, ' then a freshman journalism . and RTVMP major from Wilmington, announced his can didacy for student body president on Thursday, Feb. 3. In his remarks to the DTH, Epps said, "Five years ago I would have been very hesitant to run, but now I feel the student body will vote for the qualified candidate regard less of race." ' While it is true that campus elections often are represen tative of larger national issues, it is just as true that they often are nothing more than entertaining. Perhaps the best example of fun in campus politics is the Blue Sky Par ty formed here in 1971 to point out the apathy of students and show the ineffectiveness of student government. Pitt Dickey, then a law student from Fayetteville, ran for student body president in 1972 with his running mate Sage, a German shepherd. Some of his campaign pledges included abolishing stu dent government, erecting a weatherproof dome over the entire campus and hanging a bicycle thief in the Pit each Friday. Dickey managed to force the presidential race into a runoff, but he withdrew his candidacy shortly before the second election was scheduled to take place. In 1977, the Blue Sky Party fielded a triumvirate for the student body presidency. Like Dickey, the trio pledged to construct a Carolina blue dome over Chapel Hill and to abolish student government. If elected, the three also promised to support the Carr boro Research Academy of Sexual Studies, exempt all varsity athletes from all academic requirements and replace the Bell Tower with a giant rubber duck that would play tunes for a nickel. Their plans for election were thwarted, however, when they learned that CGC laws prohibited more than one per son holding the same office at one time. The most clever of the not-so-serious candidates was Michael Hollis, who ran for student body president in 1968. He too wanted to abolish student government and he had the perfect plan to "do so.L " V s-' Hollis was a senior and said his 'Juhegraduation would sound the death knoll for student government. To insure his success,' Mollis ran without a vice presidential running mate thereby leaving no one to succeed him. -" -' -' '" l- Alas, however, Hollis withdrew from the campaign when he realized that he had not been clever enough. In a statement to the DTH, Hollis said he realized in the nick of time that his pledge to abolish student government was just what the University administration wanted. It's not clear whether this year's elections will follow any particular trend, either nation or local. So far, two people have announced their candidacies for student body presi dent, and one student has announced her candidacy for DTH editor. Scott Bolejack, a senior journalism major frpm Ger manton, is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Abortion letter hardly 'a modest proposal To the editor: I am extremely revolted by Phillip K. Parkerson's letter, "A modest proposal?" (DTH, Jan. 20). I am, however, more re volted by Parkerson's tactics than by his highly graphic language. Parkerson is ob viously a disciple of the Congressional Club school of truth distortion. By sar castically arguing for abortion, in this sick, disgusting way, Parkerson seeks to brand all of us who are pro-choice as being blood-thirsty murderers who can't wait to knock our girlfriends up so they can have an abortion. The crux of the abortion issue is at what arbitrary point one defines the start of life. Parkerson completely ignores this, but this is no surprise since he obviously is not con cerned about the real issue, but only with winning over more converts to his cause with his emotional rantings. I am not a doctor, but I believe the fetus is not alive until it could survive outside the womb without artificial aid. Again, I am not a doctor, but I doubt this point is reached in the first three months. I am fortunate in that I have good, lov ing parents who planned for me, wanted me, raised me and eventually sent me to college. I do know that I would rather not have been bom than to be born to parents who didn't want me. There are a lot of people out there who have sex, yet neglect to use birth control. Do you want people irre sponsible enough not to take these pre cautions raising children? I don't. T.D. Champion Chapel Hill Men and abortion To the editor: On Thursday, Jan. 20, 1983, you pub lished a letter from Phillip Parkerson that, although sarcastic, was anti-abortion. It puzzles me that men seem to be so upset by abortion and men are the leaders of the anti-abortion movement. I wonder if these men are men who always use birth control when having sex or do they expect the woman to' take the responsibility? There is no 100 percent effective method of birth control (other than abstinence) so I wonder if these men who are so outraged by abortion support public policies to help women who have unplanned pregnancies policies that would provide government support for child care, increased welfare payments, parental counseling, paid maternity benefits, etc.? The record of Sen. Jesse Helms shows very little support for these kinds of policies. What about you, Parkerson? Dayna F Dcck School of Public Health Durham Attack of the Vulgar Lead Pipes Beans, beans, the Musical Fruit The more you eat, the more you pool. Elementary school rhyme Nobody can accuse me of hating food. I can do mas sive barbeque hits, I can get into a little Hector's action as well as the next man. But no matter how awesome the pizza, no matter how whopping the Whopper, no meal will ever be as much fun as lunch in elementary school. How slowly the clock crawled as lunchtime approach ed! Like convicts, we awaited liberation; like convicts, we marched single-file to the cafeteria. Every man re ceived identical servings. We sat at long tables in the hap py comradeship of prisoners granted 25 minutes of free dom. Food jokes dominated conversation "Oh no, dog steaks again" but actually the food was pretty edible. We loved the hot dogs and square pizza, the spaghetti and thick, soft bread. Cakes and sweet rolls brought 20 cents on the open market. And who could forget those wonderful, half-cooked, saltless, ketchupless french fries? We were conditioned to love those fries. So much for the good stuff. Anything green we called Vomit Food. Green beans earned the name Vulgar Lead Pipes, I guess because somebody thought they looked like little lead pipes. Tossed salad became Vulgar Mess. Peas (balls) and diced carrots (squares) were known as Vulgar Balls and Squares. Peas alone were called, you guessed it. Vulgar Balls. You had to like Vulgar Balls and Squares. We never knew if the stutt was as bad as we imagined, because nobody ate it except for a few weirdos from totalitarian families. Word passed down the table: "Look, Timmy's eating his Vulgar Lead Pipes!" We urged him on: "Sick! Foul! Perverted!" People piled their Vulgar Lead Pipes onto Timmy's plate, forming a stinking green mountain. I think Timmy ate it just to gross everybody out, MULTIPLE CHOICE By RANDY WALKER Every day they dumped Vomit Food onto our plates, and every day we dumped it in the trash. The govern ment made them do it, 1 guess. Less offensive but equally inedible were the rock-like Fudgies, hich were either fudge squares or chunks of fried turf. Eating Fudgies was like eating asphalt. Another common dessert was the Peanut Chew. They should have called it Dog Chew; humans didn't have the teeth to handle it. On a typical day, after slurping our spaghetti and gnawing our Fudgies, we were left with 15 minutes to stare at the remaining food. For creative young minds, the temptation often was too much. Now, it was an unwritten law that if you played with your food, the teacher could make you eat it. Nevertheless, some budding chemists could not resist mixing their Baked Beans and Cole Slaw to bring out the true dis gusting flavor. For texture, you could toss in a little ground-up Peanut Chew. A dash, or more likely a hand ful, of pepper rounded out the recipe. You poured the result into a plastic bag. The obvious next step was to throw it. Here you had to calculate the teacher's reaction some teachers really would make you eat it. This prospect caused onlookers to urge on the experimenter. I never had to eat it myself, but I remem ber watching in glee as a colleague of mine was forced to swallow the fruit of his labor. Atmosphere. Some places have it, others don't. My elementary school cafeteria had atmosphere. The Pine Room doesn't, Spanky's doesn't, Slug's doesn't touch' it. Tables for two, waitresses, menus, checks what are they? I want to stand in line, pay a quarter and a dime, and eat with my pals until the teacher calls time. How low I have fallen in recent years! Not only do I eat Vomit Food, I actually like it. I eat Vulgar Mess, Cole Slaw, Vulgar Balls and Squares, even the Musical Fruit. But there's still one vegetable I don't like. I avoid it in favor of other types. Though I ought to eat it, and I pro bably need it, Timmy do you still want my Vulgar Lead Pipes? 'i Randy Walker, a senior journalism major from Rich mond, Va., is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel.