The Chronicle Young, Bergsman win run-off After losing the first election, Young slipped past Leonard by 33 votes By JAIME LEVY The Chronicle
PRATIK PATEL/THE CHRONICLE
Just a
spoonful
of sugar
The brand-new McGovern-Davison Children’s Health Center will open in April. Yesterday, Medical Center officials allowed visitors into the $3O million Duke Hospital wing for a sneak peek.
Thirty days after campaigning for Duke Student Government executive elections started, it is finally over. Trinity junior Jason Bergsman and Trinity sophomore Sean Young emerged as the victors in Wednesday’s run-off races and will become vice presidents for academic affairs and community interaction, respectively. “I’m absolutely thrilled with the outcome,” Bergsman said. “It was certainly a long, hardfought battle and it’s great to see it turn out so well. I guess the third time really is the charm.” Bergsman had defeated incumbent Drew Ensign, a Trinity sophomore, in the March 2 original election, but when the election was overturned by the DSG judiciary because of bylaw violations by the election commission, all the candidates were tossed back into a revote. In the second vote, Bergsman edged Ensign by three votes but did not gain a majority of all ballots, necessitating the runoff. Young, on the other hand, only beat Trinity junior Rob Leonard after a jump from behind. In the first, four-candidate election, Leonard won 36.7 percent of the vote, enough of a margin to give him the position. But in the revote, Young led with 36.3 percent to Leonard’s 30.9 percent, generating yesterday’s runoff. Young barely won Wednesday, garnering 51.23 percent and winning by a 33-vote margin. “I definitely think I do [have a mandate] because other-
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V.P. for Academic Affairs
B
Total votes: 1,341
� JASON BERGSMAN
Drew Ensign
40.6%
V.P. for Community Interaction Total votes: 1,314
� SEAN YOUIMG Rob Leonard
48.8%
wise I don’t see how I could have won by so much in the second round...” Young said. “I’m so excited and I’m really exhausted and I just want to get back to my normal life but I’m definitely more than glad this is over... and I can’t wait to get started.” Despite his initial win, Leonard was one of the candidates who filed a complaint against the DSG election commission after the March 2 election, saying that the election had been tarnished by the election commission’s failure to handle complaints efficiently and remove fliers from polling stations. See RUN-OFF on page 8
Task force begins Inspired nun slams death penalty alcohol discourse The renowned author of Dead Man Walking spoke at the law school By RICHARD RUBIN
A group of more than 30 students, faculty and administrators gathered early Wednesday morning to talk about ways to solve the' University’s binge drinking problem.
The Chronicle
With passion and spunk, Sister Helen Prejean captivated a law school audience Wednesday, tearing into the death penalty and sharing her experiences as a spiritual adviser to death row inmates. The Louisiana nun, whose 1994 book Dead Man Walking won critical acclaim and inspired a Hollywood movie, has become one of the country’s most forceful opponents of capital punishment. “What I do is help the American public wake up on the death penalty,” she said. She explained that even though the pace of executions has quickened in the last decade, most Americans have failed to reflect on the moral implications of the death penalty. “You get blue-haired grandmothers who say, T’m in favor of it. They deserve to die.’ That’s not reflection,” she said. Although it is important to maintain outrage at murder, Americans too often dehumanize murderers by seeing their lives as only a “freeze frame” of the horrible act they commit. “It’s easy to kill a monster,” she said. “It’s even easier to kill a monster
By JAIME LEVY The Chronicle
When people start thinking about alcohol at 8 a.m., there is surely a problem. And a campus-wide problem brought together a group of more than 30 students, faculty and administrators early Wednesday morning. At the first full meeting of a student affairs task force—designed to advise senior administrators on ways to curb students’ dangerous drinking—it struggled to define its vision. The group’s ideas—which addressed the need for a clear University message, broad student acceptance and creative prevention tactics—did not culminate in any direct action. Instead of coming up with a mission statement, the group named several themes that it will continue to discuss. . However, the group’s three subcommittees will continue to meet frequently, addressing their charges of cultural assessment and change, education and prevention, and intervention and treatment. Each will work to formulate both short- and long-term solutions to its relevant issues. The entire task force will meet again in two weeks to pick up where it left off yesterday. The University’s mixed messages to students were See TASK
FORCE on page 6 �
we never meet.”
SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, who wrote Dead Man Walking , related her experiences with death row inmates and victims’ families.
Prejean began her death penalty work in 1982, corresponding with Louisiana prisoner Patrick Sonnier. She said Wednesday that she never expected the letter exchange to bring her into the death house as Sonnier’s official spiritual adviser and witness to his execution. Several times during her speech, Prejean recited that date —April 5,1984—as the climax of her political and religious awakening. “When you See PKEJEAN
‘Would you rather?’ guys, page 4 � Oak Room Interview: Julian Harris, page 11
on page 8
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