Serving UNC students and the University community since 1893 Volume 122, Issue 138 dailytarheel.com Monday, January 26, 2015 SHOOTING HURTS DECADES LATER EDITOR’S NOTE A week’s worth of coverage on 20-year-old tragedy to come hen my team and I first started W looking into news coverage of the 1995 shoot- ing on Henderson Street, we wondered if there was anything that today’s students could learn from coverage of a Jenny Surane 20-year-old tragedy. Editor-in-Chief As it turns out, we learned quite a bit. And we’re hoping and the •Ch ary ap rs e you will, too. work it’s e l v H i i l n This week, you’ll hear the still doing l n s h A o story of a student who strug- to protect r o a t e i Y n - g 0 2 gled with a dark mental illness. students. • Before we kick off this Earlier series, I thought our readers this year, we reported that should know that, for now, during the 2013-14 aca- Wendell Williamson, the demic year, Counseling and shooter, has not responded Psychological Services at to requests for comment via UNC saw 243 more students mail. I hand-delivered anoth- for short-term therapy than it er letter to the chief medical did in the previous year — a officer at Central Regional 4.7 percent increase. Hospital on Friday, and we The statistic is represen- still haven’t heard from him. tative of a situation that is You’ll know as soon as we do. improving — but slowly. We’ll spend a lot of time There’s still a stigma sur- talking about the day he rounding mental health at brought a gun to Henderson UNC, as there is everywhere Street — because his actions else. And the services provided on that day ended lives, by campus health can only destroyed families and hurt work if people feel comfortable dozens. That day is the reason enough to use them. Williamson has sat in a state- On that front, this campus run mental health facility for — and this state — still has two decades. a long way to go. Too often, But there were a lot of days we still brush off each other’s before Jan. 26, 1995. Days tears in the library as just Williamson’s classmates, teach- another exam week meltdown DTH FILE PHOTOS ers and friends spent agoniz- and the regular skipping of ing over how to properly treat class as laziness. Clockwise from top left: Orange County emergency medical professionals transport the body of one of the shooting victims; stu- Williamson and how to talk to And sometimes that’s dents mourn at a memorial on Henderson Street; Wendell Williamson sits in a Hillsborough courtroom during his 1995 trial. him about his demons. what it is. But sometimes it’s And those are the days something more. we’ll spend the most time We’re hoping that by plas- An oral history of one of Chapel Hill’s darkest days unpacking this week. tering this coverage in our Twenty years ago, this pages this week — and you By Jordan Nash shock and disbelief. DTH ONLINE: Head to campus learned the hard way can follow our coverage with Front Page News Editor On Jan. 26, 1995, UNC law student dailytarheel.com to listen to an that one of its own could suf- the news logo above — that Wendell Williamson walked down audio diary of the oral history of fer from mental illness, and we’ll confront some of that Walking down Henderson Street, Henderson Street, past that same con- the Wendell Williamson shooting. that illness could turn deadly persistent stigma. We’re hop- most people just see a concrete wall crete wall, carrying a semi-automatic the police car of Demetrise Stephenson, quickly. ing this coverage will help with a mural of a pencil. rifle and opened fire. who survived but sustained bullet inju- And in many ways, the this campus learn how to talk But beneath layers and layers of Williamson killed two people — ries to her hand. campus health system is about stress and illness in paint, still visible, are deep dents — Chapel Hill resident Ralph Walker Jr. Williamson, who had a history of more prepared to iden- productive ways. bullet holes — in the concrete. and UNC student Kevin Reichardt. mental illness, was later charged with tify and treat mental health We’re hoping we can do our Those bullet holes are the only UNC student and ex-Marine two counts of first-degree murder. issues today. part to make sure something physical evidence left of events that William Leone tackled Williamson as In November 1995, an Orange This week, we’ll have like this never happens again. occurred on this day, 20 years ago. he was trying to reload the rifle. Leone County jury found Williamson not guilty experts talk about the prog- A day that left the UNC and the was shot in the shoulder but survived. ress the University has made [email protected] Chapel Hill communities reeling in Williamson also shot point-blank at SEE WILLIAMSON, PAGE 4 Faculty call for role in selection process Search goes on “It’s challenging to talk about The Faculty Council the process by which a new leader in Roanoke’s wants a role in picking will be selected — and the values the new leader should represent Tom Ross’ successor. — when the prior leader has been lost colony dragged off-stage moments before By Ashlen Renner without an explanation,” said law Researchers are investigating a Staff Writer professor Eric Muller. Sociology professor Andrew clue on a 16th-century map. After the UNC-system Board of Perrin said the values of the board Governors forced President Tom and the system seem disconnected. By Charles Talcott Ross to resign earlier this month in “Several of the recent actions of Staff Writer a surprise move, faculty members the Board of Governors seem to at UNC worry they won’t have a really challenge what we value in Researchers recently discovered a clue voice in picking Ross’ successor. the University,” he said. that could solve the 16th-century mystery “The Board (of Governors) “I’m concerned that this is the of North Carolina’s “Lost Colony,” the first does have the right to make deci- latest in the number of actions by English settlement in the New World — and sions about our future,” Provost the board that seem not to respect the ongoing investigation could change the Jim Dean said during Friday’s the core value that has been true way people see American culture altogether. Faculty Council meeting. for two centuries of Carolina’s “I think we have gone from a ‘Lost “It’s not as if they’ve gone out- development.” Colony’ to a ‘misplaced colony’ with our side their powers or that’s against Members of the Faculty recent research findings,” said Brent Lane, a the rules. You can disagree with Assembly, a group of elected faculty member of First Colony Foundation’s board their decision, but it’s their right members from the 17 UNC-system of directors and director of the Carolina to make it.” schools, might be represented in Center for Competitive Economies. Ross will officially retire on the board’s selection process. The clue has to do with one of two small Jan. 3, 2016 or when the Board Bob Anthony, a delegate on the correction patches on La Virginea Pars, a of Governors’ finds a suitable Faculty Assembly from UNC, said late-16th century British map of the North replacement, whichever comes three faculty members and four Carolina and Virginia coastal region cur- later. The board has given little chancellors will be represented in rently in the British Museum in London. information about its decision to the board’s leadership statement Researchers at the museum closely exam- force Ross to resign. committee, which will help draft ined the surface of the patch in Bertie County, “This decision has nothing to do the new president’s leadership N.C. and used modern scanning technology with President Ross’s performance statement. to look beneath the patch in 2012. or ability to continue in the office,” Chancellor Carol Folt said DTH/KATIA MARTINEZ Researchers found a bright red and blue the entire Board of Governors said the board has yet to discuss the Chancellor Carol Folt answers questions about Tom Ross’ resignation dur- symbol of a fort underneath the patch, and in a statement on its website. “The search and selection process, but ing the meeting of the Faculty Council in Wilson Library Friday afternoon. on the surface, they found a separate fort Board respects President Ross and was confident chancellors of the symbol in scratch marks, which are thought greatly appreciates his service to UNC system would have strong perspective is investing in our to help shape the search,” Dean to be from the quill of a pen writing in the University and to the State of representation in a national universities.” said. “I think we have a reason- invisible ink. North Carolina.” search for a new president. Dean said faculty members able expectation that this univer- “It is just really one of those most Many faculty members were “When I listen to the Board of shouldn’t worry about not having sity is represented on the search extraordinary occurrences that happens in concerned about the Board of Governors, the main thing I hear a say in the Board of Governors’ committee.” historical research,” said Eric Klingelhofer, Governors’ process for selecting a is many different perspectives,” selection process.