Carolina Alumni Review - May/June 2009

THE CARSON LEGACY

Junior-Year Merit Scholarship, represents the realization of one of the former student body president’s own goals. The idea for a scholarship to be awarded to an outstanding junior was part of Carson’s campaign platform, and at the time of her death she had pushed it well into the planning and fundraising stages.

The scholarship was intended to be named for Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser. But Andy Woods ’09, a public policy major who had worked on Carson’s campaign, knew it would have to be renamed.“Everyone knew that there needed to be a way to honor the legacy and the spirit of who Eve was,” said Woods, who is now director of the scholarship. “Whatever it is that this person’s passion is, whatever it is that gets them excited and gets them moving, we want to help them with that.”

In February, Elinor Benami of Knoxville was chosen from among 140 applicants as the first recipient of the scholarship. Benami hopes to use the award to expand the reach of Carolina United, an annual retreat for students to discuss racism, sexism and other difficult issues.

Woods hopes eventually to grow the number of scholarship recipients to five each year — “five individuals who walked in the same way that Eve walked,” he said. So far, $400,000 has been raised through fundraisers and private donations. Woods and the rest of the scholarship committee aim to raise $3 million to endow the fund.

Several student groups have stepped up, and sprung up, to help meet that goal. Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Pi Beta Phi soror-

HOERR SCHAUDT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

ity organized the Eve Carson Memorial 5K in November. The event, which drew more than 1,000 runners, collected about $15,600 toward the memorial scholarship. Students for the Carolina Way, a group formed this year to commemorate Carson’s spirit, made promoting the 5K one of its first projects. The senior class also chose the memorial scholarship to receive the funds earned in its campaign this year.“Eve is gone, but we don’t want to see her legacy gone,” said Pinar Gurel ’09, senior class vice president.

A tangible reminder of that legacy will begin to take shape on campus over the next few months. Sited just off Polk Place behind the Campus Y — an apt location given Carson’s passion for social justice — the Eve Marie Carson Garden will feature a low stone wall topped with glass etched with the names of all UNC students who

die while attending the University.

“It’s going to be a place for conversation as well as reflection,” said Peggy Jablonski, vice chancellor for student affairs, who met with Carson weekly.“A place where people can gather at the crossroads of campus.”

The larger community

Others have turned their attention to goals at once more ambitious and amorphous — righting some of the social problems that litter the life stories of her suspected killers, Demario Atwater and Lawrence Lovett.

Police call Northeast Central Durham the bull’s-eye. The 180-block circle experiences the highest rates of gang violence, reported gunshots and prostitution of any area the department covers.