The Carolinian [April 9, 2002]

              Nile
r I THE CAROLINIAN
SGA candidates answer student questions in second debate
Joe Wilbur
Editor-in-Chief
A week after the first
debate of the election season presi-dential
and vice presidential candi-dates
were given a second shot ai
student concerns - and this lime
they look on the tough questions
from PRIDE funding to voter
racism.
At a more informal ques-tion
and answer session in front of
the Elliot University Center
Thursday the candidates were hop-ing
to catch the commuter crowd
and passing traffic. While (he crowd
was sparser than the first debate.
held at the SOA'a weekly full body
meeting, the questions were more
lively.
"I feel like it went really
well," said current SGA President
LaToya Tate. "It was definitely less
formal, but we talked about some
good things. We got a lot of it out
there."
Among the issues the
debate put "out there" was SGA
funding of PRIDE. UNCGs gay and
lesbian group, through student fees.
The question came from Jason
Crawford, a UNCG junior who's
been pushing to slash PRIDE's
budget, calling the group left wing
radicals and accusing them of advo-cating
"a lifestyle that is inherently
lethal."
"Will the SGA be dis-cussing
PR IDE'Spalings and budg-et."
asked Crawford. "Because I'd
like (o know whether moral clarity
will be on the ballot this year or
whether hot button issues will be
a\ oided out of political expediency."
Crawford was sorely disappointed,
as every candidate came out in
defense of PRIDE.
The SGA must follow the
Supreme Court's rulings," said vice
presidential candidate Chris Young.
"We must therefore be content neu-tral
in our funding. We fund PRIDE
like anything else. When we fund
INco-Black Society's) gospel choir,
we fund their singing - not what
they're singing about. We don't look
at what the group's content is. as
long as they meet our organization
guidelines."
Particularly interesting
were presidential hopeful Lacey
Diggs' thoughts on the subject. At
the last debate Diggs was accused of
homophobia by Carolinian colum-nist
and former PRIDE representa-tive
John Russell.
"I respect everyone for who
they arc unless their actions prove
otherwise," said Diggs. "If any
organization can meet the stringent
SGA organizational guidelines, then
they deserve to be represented."
Diggs said she thought
Russell's comments were unfair and
were leveled because she's a member
of a social sorority.
"I think what Mr. Russell
did was to define every |social
Greek| by one characteristic and
that's just unfair." said Diggs. That's
the same sort of hatred and stereotyp-ing
that he's against."
Diggs denied being a homo-phobe
and said her presidency would
exclude no one.
"I don't discriminate against
anyone." said Diggs. "The Student
Government president doesn't repre-sent
a specific set of beliefs, but the
concerns of all students."
Another point of tension
was the widespread rumors that the
vice presidential race will be decided
along racial lines, with Brandy Propst
pulling the "black vote." shutting out
Young, a while male.
Propst said the very idea is
offensive to minority students.
"I know a lot of minorities
are offended by that kind of com-ment."
said Propst. 'It's like saying
they weren't able to make the right
decision outside of race. I think it's a
very ignorant comment and I'm pret-ty
sure that people will make the
right decision."
There were less controver-sial
moments as the candidates
promised to bring the UNCG com-munity
together, fight campus apa-thy
and use social events draw new
students into SGA.
"I really believe that we
should be pulling out a newsletter
instead of just our regular agenda."
said presidential candidate Mary
Tracey. "We should really be using
the campus mail system lo send it 10
every student, and especially trcsh-men."
Young agreed, stressing
accessibility and accountability
Continued <»/ page 3
From left to right: Vice presidential candidate Chris Young, presidential candidates Mary Tracey and Lacey Diggs and vice presidential hopeful Brandy Propst. Elizabeth Fcnn. The Carolinian
The candidates addressed hot button issues such as racism, sexual orientation. Greek bashing and student fees in their Thursday forum with students outside the Elliot University Center
Miles Davis' historic
trumpet at UNCG
Horn used to record 'Kind of Blue'on display in
School ofMusic
Kevin Harvey An historic jazz
Senior Writer artifact - the irum-
™ pet Miles Davis
used to record the classic album
Kind of Blue- is now on display in
UNCG's School of Music.
Jazz musicians, music
lovers or simply curious folks can
feast their eyes on the famous horn
in the lower atrium of the Music
Building, just outside the main
recital hall's large wooden d«x)rs.
Davis' friend Buddy Gist donated
the hom to the School of Music Sept.
27 of last year.
"|Gist| was a close personal friend of
Miles.'' said Steve Haines. director of
the UNCG Miles Davis Jazz Studies
Program. He helped him take care
of his children when he was on the
road."
The trumpet has been on
tour with the Missouri Historical
Society's Miles Davis exhibit for the
last nine months. The trumpet was
its prize piece." said Haines.
"Buddy and that trumpet were the
instigators (for naming) the Miles
Davis Jazz Studies Program." he
said. "That gift propelled the whole
thing into motion. It was Buddy who
got it all started."
"I went to Birdland with
(then U.S. heavyweight boxing
champion) Ezzard Charles and Miles
was sitting there by himself." said
Gist, who met Davis in 1948. "We
walked up to his booth and Ezzard
introduced me to him."
Gist said he looks back on
his friendship with Davis with fond-ness.
"He was funny; he'd keep you laugh-ing
all the time." he said. "When he
finished a number, he'd go sit down
in the audience. When it was time
for him to play again he'd just go
back up on stage."
Gist also confirmed popular
rumors about Davis' musical
prowess.
"He didn't warm up.' said Oist.
"When he go! there he'd step right up
to the bandstand. He never took a
break
A recent appraisal of the trumpet
revealed one of its valves had been
replaced. Ja//
historians disagree as to where the
odd valve came from.
"There's a rumor that [Duke
Ellington band trumpet player] Clark
Terry gave it to him." said Haines.
"Musically, he was a lather figure to
Miles and a lot o\ other people.'
Recorded in March and
April of 1959. Haines described
Kind of Blue as one of the master-pieces
of 20th century music, not just
jazz. People who hear it are influ-enced
for the rest of their life."
Kind of Blue is widely
regarded as a milestone in the evolu-tion
of jazz, serving as a touchstone
for all musicians pushing new
boundaries.
"It was an evolution when n came
out because of Miles' new approach
to the music' said Haines.
"Everyone wanted to sound like
Miles' band. Whenever Miles
changed, every thing changed.''
"The solos were perfect, the
sound was perfect." said Haines.
"They let the music come lo them."
Some jazz musicians in the
School of Music agreed.
"Its more important than people can
understand.' said Allan Buccola, a
sophomore saxophone major.
"(Davis) is an icon ol what jaZZ was
Continued on /hive 3
The hom sits inside a custom-made case in the Music Building's lower atri-um
Jessica Gruen. The Carolinian
SGA grapples with budget process
Delegates frustrated with new financial guidelines
John W. Ayers
News Editor
Last week's SGA meeting
fell the crunch of the group's new
financial guidelines as delegates and
executives struggled for four and a
half hours to hammer out next year's
student organization budgets.
Ordinarily, the SGA
Finance Committee meets outside of
SGA. prepares the budgets, and
brings them back to a full-body meet-ing
for a line-by-line vote. The prob-lem
this semester is that the SGA
must follow new financial guide-lines,
and the Finance Committee
didn't follow them in their standard
meeting.
According to officials, this
happened because most of the
Finance Committee simply disap-peared
this semester..
"The first time [the Finance
Committee! met. we didn't have
enough people. The second time,
nobody showed up," said Chris
Young. SGA Finance Chair.
Young said he has one
active member left out of 14 original
committee members. Without a
Finance Committee, he said, it's
much harder to pass budgets and
allocate student lees.
"We set up meetings for the
committees and students arid no one
from the Finance Committee showed
up," said Suzi Haynes. SGA's
Assistant Director for Student
Organization Governance
Development.
In addition, the Finance
Committee failed to follow the new
guidelines properly, according to
Haynes.
They didn't follow the
guidelines and they didn't (distribute
student fees] in a consistently neutral
manner." she said.
"A lot of it was a lack of
understanding by everyone." Haynes
said. "|The recent Supreme Court
Decision regarding neutrality in stu-dent
budgets) arc very confusing- it's
baffled a lot of lawyers across the
nation."
Haynes said the Finance
Committee's problems with the
budgets also stemmed from the new
guidelines' complexity.
Because the guidelines were
so complex. Haynes said some dele-gates
as well as some members of the
Finance committee simply didn't
read them.
"They need to read the
guidelines and they need to be fully
aware of their responsibility to the
student body as a whole to make sure
student lees are being allocated con-sistently."
she said.
We didn't follow |the
guidelines! to the letter." said parlia-mentarian
John Rouse, who sal in on
the Financial Committee meeting last
month.
"We followed certain parts
of il but it was so new and fresh that
we weren't acclimated lo implement
ing these things. This isn't standard
practice." he said.
This meani the budgets had
to go before the entire SGA body
Apr. 2. a much longer and more com-plicated
process.
The delegates spent the
night reviewing the budgets m com-mittee
of the whole, w hich means the
entire body votes on every line of
every budget until the job is done.
They chose this over the
option of breaking into smaller com-mittees
lo review the budgets at the
beginning of the meeting because
there weren't enough delegates pres-ent
to break into committees.
Vice president Cuisa
Stanley and president l.aToya Tate
threatened the delegates at the mcei-ing's
start, say ing they would take the
Continued OH pttgi 2