LETTERS
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Taylor’s ‘Bold Decision’
Transformed UNC Libraries
For some readers, the sidebar story titled
“The New Taylor Hall” (January/February
2009, page 3) may suggest an honor for the
late Chancellor Nelson Ferebee Taylor ’ 42.
For us old-timers, it is painful reminder of
an injustice.
When in the mid-1970s the University Reporting ‘Diminished’
sold its electric power, telephone and by ‘Politicized Iconography’
water/sewer utilities for nearly $42 million, Re: “Get Out of Town” (March/April
UNC’s library system was falling precipi- 2009), about UNC students studying abroad:
tously in stature among those of other The student writer, Katherine Evans, wrote
American universities. Wilson, House and an interesting article with no apparent politi-departmental libraries were bulging at the cal agenda, and the map and bar graph of the
seams; students fought for study spaces; and places and the numbers of students studying
book budgets were stagnant. Working with abroad was informative. Six of the accompa-Provost Charles Morrow and nying photographs appropriately
Librarian James Govan, the C AROLINA featured the students. But the sev-chancellor made a bold decision: March/April2009 ALUMNI REVIEW enth photograph diminished the
Devote every dollar of the sale student and featured instead a
to library development. From Admitted Cuban architectural icon of Com-The N.C. General Assembly topick Chapel Hill munist Che Guevara.
took away $10 million of the Your politicized iconography,
revenue, but the reminder (nearly covering nearly a quarter of a
$32 million) was spent on the page, degraded an otherwise
It’s the Shoes, He Discovered /Terms of World Travel
to Committed
What it takes to get star students
construction of a state-of-the-art appropriate article. Posters on col-
central library, renovation of Wilson Library, lege campuses and in political campaign
addition to the Health Sciences Library, and offices, along with T-shirts, have romanti-
improvements to other campus depositories. cized Che sufficiently for you to have
Taylor’s decision to make a once-in-a- spared us this sanitized symbol of the mur-
lifetime investment in libraries did not derer. In any event, your politicized iconog-
please other campus officials who sought to raphy disproportionately reflected the distri-
share in what they looked upon as a wind- bution of students studying abroad. Of the
fall, but the library staff recognized in Fere- 1,303 students you report studied abroad in
bee Taylor a man of rare vision and resolu- 2008, only 14 went to Cuba, hardly justify-
tion. Somewhere in the archives of the ing your featuring Che. At least you spared
Board of Trustees is a petition — signed, if us tributes to Mao, Lenin, and Stalin for the
I recall correctly, by every member of the 71 students who studied in China and the
library staff — urging that the central nine in Russia. Apparently no students went
library building be named for the man to Cambodia, so you had no opportunity to
who poured his heart and soul into it. patronize Pol Pot.
Walter Davis was, indeed, a good sup- I suggest that you publish a follow-up
porter of the University (he gave at least $1 report on UNC students’ reading selections
million for the Dean Smith Center, and he and tally their apparent readings about Che
probably helped prevent the General and other Communist icons. Then com-
Assembly from seizing more than the $10 pare such records for Stephane Courtois’
million that it did withhold), but for those The Black Book of Communism: Crimes,
of us who fought alongside the chancellor, Terror, Repression. You can then use one of
the building that now bears Davis’ name is The Black Book’s photographs, perhaps the
really “the Nelson Ferebee Taylor Library.” one from the killing fields of Cambodia of
H.G. Jones the Communist “museum of genocide,” to
Curator Emeritus, N.C. Collection portray Communism in the light of histor-
Pittsboro ical reality. In any event, please spare us
more romanticized imagery from the
Cuban “workers’ paradise.”
Arch T. Allen ’ 62 BSBA (’ 65 LLBJD)
Raleigh
Cheering for Carolina
and All That Jazz
I am proud to be an alumnus and also
one of the founders of Tipitina’s, now a
landmark venue for New Orleans music. I
want to congratulate the organizers of the
UNC Jazz Festival for booking the Neville
Brothers and Doctor John on Mardi Gras
night. This is quite an achievement!
The Neville Brothers played their first-ever gig at the just-opened Tipitina’s and
for years were practically the house band,
especially during carnival and Jazz Fest. We
started a rumor that “Dr. John is going to
show up, too” — until one memorable
night we heard the strains of Such a Night
and the hype became reality.
I wish I could be there to see the music
I love at the place I love.
Ben Rushin ’ 64 (’ 71 MA)
Modesto, Calif.
This letter was in response to an article in
“Out of the Blue,” the GAA’s e-newsletter.
Memories of Music
I read with interest your article in the
November/December 2008 issue about the
Pickwick Theater (“Timelines”). The lady
you referred to as “Pickwick Mable” —
Mrs.V.A. Hill — was my aunt by marriage.
Her husband,Vernon, my uncle, was the
cashier at the Pickwick and an alumnus
with an A.B. degree in education in 1924.
Mable was as gifted at the typewriter as
she was at the piano keyboard. She was
secretary to Dr. Edgar W. Knight at the
School of Education in Peabody Hall,
where those fingers rang the manual typewriter for more than 30 years. Also, she was
the organist at the Methodist Church,
where she met her husband, “Hill.”
At the request of Mrs. Ida Friday ’ 47
(MPH), their home at 210 Henderson St.
was sold in 1984 by their heirs to become
the Orange County Women’s Center. A
beautiful way to remember the close of the
lives of a very happy couple.
Louise C. Litaker
Greenville, S.C.
