OLD GOLD&BLACK W A K E
F O R E S T
U N I V E R S I T Y
VOL. 94, NO. 2
T H U R S D AY, A U G U S T 2 6 , 2 0 1 0
“Covers the campus like the magnolias”
New monument is testiment to history
Outside the Bubble...
By Caitlin Brooks | Production manager
33 miners trapped in Chilean gold and copper mine Thirty-three miners trapped 2,300 feet below ground in Chile are depending on food, medicine and supplies being dropped to them through a 4-inch-wide tube. The supplies from the tube will have to sustain the men for perhaps up to four months while a shaft wide enough to pull a man through is drilled. The miners already have been trapped since a rockslide inside the San Esteban gold and copper mine cut off their exit route. A probe retrieved a note from the miners on Aug. 20 saying all were alive and well in a cramped, 530-square-foot shelter. They survived by sharing tiny portions of canned fish stored in the shelter room.
Three teens killed due to Facebook hitlist Three teens who were on a 69-name hit list posted on Facebook have been killed in the past 10 days in a southwestern Colombian town, officials say. Police say they do not know who posted the list or why the names are on it. But officials note that a criminal gang known as Los Rastrojos and a Marxist guerrilla group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate in the area.
A puzzling sight greeted students returning to the Reynolda Campus for the Fall 2010 semester. A new monument composed of a central podium and nine smaller podiums, four with large marble plaques, occupies a space that was once a grass buffer between the Manchester Plaza stage and Benson University Center. Speculations abounded during construction this summer as to what the final form and purpose of this new monument built into the heart of the campus. The structure, traditionally called a “plot,” is the culmination of four years of negotiations between the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) fraternity and sorority leadership on campus and the university’s administration. The final result is the NPHC Garden, a symbolic and practical space designed to serve the needs of the local NPHC community and to pay tribute to nearly a century’s worth of history bound up in the NPHC organizations. The nine podiums surrounding the central podium in the garden each represent one of the “Divine Nine” traditionally black fraternities and sororities that compose the NPHC. Four of the nine currently have chartered organizations on campus though several of those no lon-
ger represented once held positions of prominence in university history. Plots traditionally serve as social and ritual centers for NPHC organizations around the country. Akin to fraternity lounges or hall space, these areas are dedicated exclusively to members and are for their use only. “It is a sacred space,” Anthony Williams, Wake Forest Fellow in the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and alumnus member of Phi Beta Sigma (’10) said. “A lot of people (traditionally) do not use the space if they are not invited. The Plot is really a meaningful and powerful area for the organization.” The university’s NPHC Garden differs from this traditional exclusivity in an important way — the use of the space has the potential for campus-wide education. “A lot of it (activities at the NPHC Garden) is going to be educational,” Williams said. “Our numbers are not as big as at other universities, so we are going to use this as an opportunity to educate the campus.” Alta Mauro, director of the OMA, seconded the impor-
tance of the educational aspect of the space. “Very important to achieving inclusion is raising awareness. This space may not propel people into meaningful cross cultural relationships, but it will promote awareness of less represented organizations,” she said. The NPHC Garden has already achieved that goal. Concerns, compliments and criticisms surround the completion of the structure. Many students expressed concern about the lack of transparency surrounding the project. When asked about this, Steve Hirst, director of student leadership and organizations, explained that the process had been so drawn out over so many successive student government and NPHC administrations that discussions held at the beginning of negotiations may not have carried over to the current Student Government administration. Though, Hirst added, the most important part of the process is “for the students (involved in the NPHC organizations) to know that the university values them.” This value can be taken with a grain of salt according to Mauro. “We are trying to be as supportive of people in Greek Life as we can. After all, this is something good where there wasn’t anything before,” she said. “But when has Wake Forest stopped when something was just good enough? The last thing we need at Wake Forest is another story of people
See Garden, Page A3
Bridge inspections slow down traffic Drivers on Business 40 can expect slowdowns this week as inspectors check a series of bridges downtown. The inspections, which had originally been scheduled for the fall, were moved up as a result of falling pieces of concrete discovered earlier this month, said David Spainhour, a maintenance engineer in the local office of the N.C. Department of Transportation. One lane of the road is expected to be closed between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. while the inspections are being performed. The lane closure will vary, but only one lane is expected to be closed at any given time.
Hurricane Danielle poses no apparent threat Hurricane Danielle unexpectedly weakened from Category 2 to Category 1 late in the morning of Aug. 24 as it churned through the middle of the Atlantic, far from land, the National Hurricane Center reported. Danielle — the second hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season — was moving to the west-northwest with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph, within the 74 mph to 95 mph parameters of Category 1.
INSIDE:
Rachel Cameron/Old Gold & Black
Pi Beta Phi sorority loses charter By Caroline Edgeton | Managing editor
On Aug. 4, the university announced that its sorority chapter of Pi Beta Phi was officially suspended of their charter through the grand council at the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). The university was notified of this on Aug. 2. “In late June we found out through members that a letter had been sent to Pi Phi members that the grand council would take up in their annual meeting whether the chapter should be closed,” Ken Zick, vice president and dean of student affairs, said. “That was a real surprise to us.” According to Zick, NPC stated that the university’s chapter was guilty of an “unprecedented violation of probation” as a result of having a party after being put on probation due to practicing traditions from the previous university local chapter — known as Strings — before the university’s female greek life associated itself on a national level. Upon questioning NPC in response to the loss of the charter, the current members — now actually known as Pi Phi alumnae — as well as the university were
Life | B5 Explore Winston-Salem
Brieflies
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Faculty Profile
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A tour highlights the city
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surrounding the university.
The Hot List
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Sudoku
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given little to no detail about specific incidents where NPC felt the university’s Pi Phi chapter compromised the national rules and regulations. According to Zick, the university was given word that some members were continuing some Strings traditions. “These were more like silly traditions, nothing crazy or dangerous,” Anna Dillard, former co-vice president of Pi Phi, said. “It definitely wasn’t enough to take our chapter away.” The university agreed that the practices of Strings were never publicized enough to even be a bothersome aspect. “There was never any visual representation of Strings to begin with,” Steve Hirst, director of student leadership and organizations, said. “From what we understand they weren’t doing anything that really compromised the national Pi Phi standards.” “We also have never had a sorority lose their charter as a result of a disciplinary action,” Zick said. In many instances, overall failure to adhere to university policies such as meeting the academic
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requirement and failure to maintain rituals or members have been reason enough to remove charters. Because none of these reasons were even considered a problem, the university and the Pi Phi alumnae felt “blindsided.” “We can’t think of any specific instances where we were concerned about Pi Beta Phi losing their charter; we didn’t have any evidence of deterioration or specific incidents where health and safety were an issue,” Hirst said Because the university was not aware of any specific incidents where the university’s Pi Phi chapter was guilty of extreme misconduct, this was a very “peculiar” action of NPC. “The university wasn’t in the loop on the national level at all. We tried to talk to national executives from Pi Beta Phi and all they told us was that the loyalty and integrity was being compromised by (the university’s chapter of ) Pi Beta Phi, and that’s all,” Zick said.
See Pi Phi, Page A3
Opinion | A4 “Mosque” near Ground Zero? Matt Moran discusses his views on building a “mosque” near the site of the September 11 attacks.