January 30, 2014

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XXXXXDAY, JANUARY THURSDAY, MMMM XX, 30,2013 2014

Grad Young trustee finalists selected

Voter ID laws debated across state lines NEWS ANALYSIS

by Georgia Parke THE CHRONICLE

by Staff Reports THE CHRONICLE

Three graduate student young trustee finalists were selected from a pool of 20-30 applicants. The selection process included interviews and application reviews by the Young Trustee Selection Committee of the Graduate and Professional Student Council. The GPSC General Assembly will elect a candidate at its Feb. 18 meeting. Closed voting is one of the major differences between undergraduate and graduate Young Trustees. The finalists are Shannon O’Connor, Amol Yadav and Bill Hunt. O’Connor is a fifth-year PhD/MD candidate in biomedical engineering and the vice-president of GPSC for 2013-2014. Yadav is a fourth-year PhD candidate in biomedical engineering and currently serving as president of GPSC. Hunt is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in English and served as the president of GPSC for the 2012-2013 school year.

ONE ONE HUNDRED HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTH NINTHYEAR, YEAR,ISSUE ISSUEXXX 76

THANH-HA NGUYEN/THE CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Changes in the voting laws of other states may influence voting procedures and restictions in N.C.

Actions taken in other states on voter identification laws may indirectly influence the legal outcomes on the issue in North Carolina. Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 589 Aug. 12 of last year to alter voting procedures and restrictions. Among the provisions and restrictions are a reduction of early voting as well as the termination of same-day voter registration, pre-registration for high school students and the use of college identifications as acceptable forms of voter identification. The law is now the subject of a lawsuit brought against the state by the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier this month, a comparable law passed March 2012 in Pennsylvania was struck down by a state judge on the basis that it did not assist in free and fair elections. Officials and experts have said that this could have implications for the case developing in North Carolina. Legally, the Pennsylvania case cannot serve as a legal precedent, as it only involves state law and thus is not applicable in other states, said Guy-Uriel Charles, Charles S. Rhyne professor of law. Judges may be influenced, however, by knowing the actions other courts have already taken on similar constitutional issues. “The fact that other courts are striking See VOTER, page 3

N&O sues UNC for withholding records in academic scandal by Jenna Zhang THE CHRONICLE

News and Observer Publishing Co. sued UNC Chancellor Carol Folt last Thursday for student records that could help illuminate the origins of the athlete academic performance scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. John Drescher, executive editor of the News and Observer, said UNC has released the requested records dating from 2006 to 2011 but is withholding records from the mid-1990s when the “bogus” classes began. UNC officials claim that the records in question contain information protected under the

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which permits educational institutions to withhold information that could be used to personally identity students. Jonathan Jones, director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition, called the school’s legal standing on FERPA “tenuous.” “If they’ve brought this information forward for some years, why can’t they release it for others?” Jones said. “Universities should be and can be as transparent as possible. UNC, through this whole scandal, has refused to be transparent.” Drescher contends that the requested records are not protected by FERPA because

they do not identify students by name and the likelihood of identifying a student based on the information contained in the records is very low. According to a Jan. 23 News & Observer article, UNC attorneys have said that the spreadsheets in question are broken down into 13 categories—including the name of the student, their sport, cumulative GPA, major and semester. The News & Observer has requested a copy of the spreadsheet with all the fields redacted except those titled “sport,” “course title” and “semester.” “We’re not interested in identifying specific students by name,” Drescher said. “However,

we are interested in knowing the composition of these bogus classes by sport. We want to get that information from an earlier period when the classes started, to really get to the root of the issue and see if there are any trends.” Joel Curran, vice chancellor for communications and public affairs at UNC, said the records in question were protected under federal privacy law and said the school would “vigorously defend the privacy rights of [students]” in a statement last Thursday. Karen Moon, UNC director of news services, and Steve Kirschner, UNC senior See UNC, page 3


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January 30, 2014 by Duke Chronicle - Issuu